My mother is a little reclusive. She has always been shy and it wears her out to be around lots of people. For the past decade, she and dad have lived fairly isolated in Cashiers, N.C., where they hiked, cooked and read. Unfortunately, my mom developed Macular Degeneration, which has cost her much of her eyesight over the last few years. Understanding how much depended on his ability to drive the mountain roads, my 80-year-old dad decided to play it safe and my parents moved to Brevard, N.C. They are the youngsters in a retirement community there and they seem very happy.
My dad still hikes every week and likes to walk over to Brevard College to watch the baseball games. My mother is no longer housebound due to her failing eyesight; she is walking through the halls unworried about falling since there is carpeting. It takes her almost an hour to walk one mile, depending on how many people she stops to talk with. Dad still does a little cooking and mom is re-learning to balance her social life with her private life.
My parents read. This is how mom, particularly, balances herself; reading is her quiet time. I spent time with them over the spring break and it made me sad to see mom’s growing basket of reading aides. She has lighted magnifiers which could find the proverbial needle in a haystack. It takes her around 20 minutes now to read one page of text. For years we have provided her with books on CD, but she says they are not the same- interpretation leaves one is at the mercy of the reader.
We discussed different e-readers; my sister found one which can increase the print size to a 72 font, huge! Mom sits nervously attentive; she was never interested in learning to use digital technology until recently. To her, the stakes are high. With her remaining vision, she desperately wants to keep reading. Books are some of her best friends. Text gives her the ability to learn and to lose herself in another character’s world, to feel the flow of good writer’s description creating a new space in her mind.
What a joy it is to be able to read with ease!
